USB 3.1 Demo By USB-IF Proves Faster Speeds

According to the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) president and COO, Jeff Ravencraft, the “SuperSpeed” USB 3.0 would be able to double its throughput in its 3.1 model. From 5GB/sec, it is able to go as fast as 10GB/sec. And indeed, the USB 3.1 Demo proved it true.

The demo was conducted using an FPGA-based USB 3.1 prototype controller board developed by Fresco-Logic. The prototype controller board is connected to DDR memory, instead of a storage device. Ravencraft explained that the prototype controller board was not connected to a storage device because there are no solid-state drives with that kind of level as of the moment.

USB 3.1 SUPER SuperSpeed

In July of this year, it was shown that the USB 3.1 was able to transmit large packets by as fast as 900MB per second with the set-up running the ATTO Disk Benchmark. This was a remarkable progress from the 450MB per second transmitted by USB 3.0 at five-gig.

In just eight weeks, the speed has doubled, as remarked by Ravencraft. If USB 3.1 will be fully tuned and productized, is expected to deliver with ease up to 1.2 GB per second. This means that the said speed will enable delivery of uncompressed 4K video. Same as the USB 3.0, USB 3.1 was designed to be compatible with older USB devices.

Ravencraft issued a statement, saying that this new product is expected to be released in the market during the Christmas season in the year 2014. On the other hand, a wider range of USB 3.1 will be made available in 2015. And as for USB 3.0 products, he said that more than 1,000 certified USB 3.0 products are now in the market and that 700 million individual SuperSpeed USB-enabled devices are to be shipped in 2013 with a predicted increase in the shipments by as much as 2.2 billion by the year 2016.

Aside from the USB 3.1 Demo, Ravencraft also talked about the new Media Agnostic (MA) USB effort by the USB-IF. With the new MA USB, wireless devices and docking stations will be able to communicate using the USB 2.0, 3.0, and 3.1 protocols even without using any physical connection. MA-enabled devices are designed to communicate over 60GHz WiGig, 2.4GHz, and 5GHz Wi-Fi. On the other hand, the WiMedia ultra-wide band radios will operate between 3.1GHz and 10.6GHz.